Sánchez will not attend the Ibero-American Summit in Ecuador, but will attend COP 29 in Azerbaijan

Luis Ayllón The President of the Government, Pedro Sánchez, has decided not to attend the Ibero-American Summit, which will take place on the 14th and 15th in the Ecuadorian city of Cuenca, in order to closely monitor the management of the consequences of the floods that mainly affected the Valencian Community and caused at least 220 deaths, as announced this Thursday by Moncloa. However, according to the Presidency of the Government, Sánchez will continue to attend the COP29 climate summit, which will begin a few days earlier, on Monday, the 11th, in Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan, because he believes that the DANA suffered in Spain has highlighted the importance of a crucial forum for the fight against climate change. Moncloa argues that participation in COP29, where Sánchez will speak at a table on climate financing, "will be an opportunity to defend the need to redouble efforts to avoid the worst effects of climate change." The head of the Executive already closed his attendance this Thursday at the meeting in Budapest of the European Political Community and is still awaiting confirmation as to whether he will travel to the G-20 Summit, scheduled for the 18th and 19th of this month in Rio de Janeiro. Moncloa justifies Sánchez's absence from the XXIX Ibero-American Summit on the grounds that "Spain will be represented at the highest level" by the King, who always attends this forum, and by the Minister of Foreign Affairs, José Manuel Albares. Sources from the Zarzuela Palace consulted by The Diplomat indicated that there is no change in the forecast that Don Felipe will attend the meeting in Cuenca, in which Spain will take over from the pro tempore secretary to organize the next meeting in our country, in 2026. The Ibero-American Summits are not going through their best moment and, in fact, despite the efforts of the Ecuadorian authorities, there is a significant number of heads of state who have confirmed that they will not be present, including the Argentine Javier Milei, the Venezuelan Nicolás Maduro or the Nicaraguan Daniel Ortega. To these absences we must add that of the new president of Mexico, Claudia Sheinbaum, who has not been invited given that relations with Ecuador are broken after the Ecuadorian police entered the Embassy of the Aztec country in Quito to arrest former vice president Jorge Glas, who was seeking asylum in the Mexican consulate. The Ibero-American Conference, launched in 1991 by Spain, Mexico and Brazil, currently brings together 22 countries (Spain, Portugal and Andorra along with 19 Ibero-American countries) and, although the summits began to be held annually, since 2014 they have taken place every two years. Spain will be responsible for organizing the 30th edition of the Summits, after having been the scene of three others, in Madrid (1992), Salamanca (2005) and Cadiz (2012).

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